FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Oct. 4, 2018 (EIRNS)—After the EU Council’s Ecofin meeting which includes the EU nations’ economic and finance ministers, the Italian government partly revised its deficit target for the next three years. The 2.4% deficit is confirmed for 2019, to go down to 2.1% in 2020, and 1.8% in 2021. This is still way beyond what the previous, pro-EU government had planned.

The EU is fuming and is waiting for the detailed budget plan Oct. 15, in order to have “detailed figures.”

Answering journalists’ questions, EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici said that “Italy has chosen a euro-skeptic and xenophobic government,” but the EU will enforce rules.

“The EU Commission is there to enforce rules, which are not stupid rules, but ensure that a major debt such as the Italian debt, as well as other countries’ public debt, are under control. We will make sure that such rules are respected.”

According to sources, the strategy of the Italian government is to avoid a break with the EU until after the elections for the European Parliament in April 2019. With a euro-skeptic majority, the European Parliament will then elect a different EU Commission and it will be a different game.